Former Dodgers Owner the O'Malley family is "considering whether to try to buy" the Padres, according to Bill Shaikin of the L.A. TIMES. The O'Malleys sold the Dodgers in '98, and when former Dodgers Owner Frank McCourt put the team up for sale last year, the family "unsuccessfully tried to buy it back." Peter O'Malley said, "Our family gave the Dodger pursuit everything we had. We were serious suitors. It didn't happen. I support the new owners, and I want them to do well." O'Malley "declined to discuss any details about his role should his family succeed in buying the Padres." But it "appears unlikely that he would be a full-time chief executive, as he would have been had the Dodgers bid been successful." He said, "The Padres have only been on the market a number of days. I have not talked to [Padres Chair] John Moores. We're considering it" (LATIMES.com, 4/17). FORBES' Mike Ozanian cites sources as saying that MLB “told O’Malley at the time he withdrew his bid not to take his case to arbitrator Joe Farnham if he ever wanted to buy another baseball team.” The Padres “could be payback for O’Malley, especially if he [is] able to get the same concessions with San Diego’s new media deal" that Guggenheim Baseball Management got with the Dodgers. Sources said that one of the concessions Guggenheim will have is if they "form a RSN they can pay lower rights fees to their team than would normally be the case.” They also said that O’Malley and Moores “might ask for the same deal McCourt negotiated” (FORBES.com, 4/18).
